HOW LAZY ARE YOU?

This big and tall boy was idling. He was not idling- that is what he would argue if I ever asked him anything about a few hours under a shade. From his back, the toxifying paint oduor erupted from the refurbishing room. The dormant place was being converted to a barber shop. Is it good to call it a shop? Now, I wonder if he did any feasibility studies for there is another business of equal nature a jump away. It is slum life man- here we survive. We don’t operate with theories.

When he held the vibrating machine on my small head, I saw the energy in his hands in the single mirror. The veins tightened his skin from somewhere after the elbow  (he had his sleeves the Obama way). The tributaries mapped down past the wrist. The knuckles did not stop the natural structures. He may have had lunch a few moments ago. The temperature and body metabolism were cooperating in the fight for an optimal comfort. I liked the masculinity and admired- I am thin and 52 Kgs heavy. A weak man.

He is wasting his energy there I guess. In my walking from here to there, there is always a court-room in my mind. When I see people doing things – whether good or bad, I judge them. how I came to that point, I now not. When I see a beggar who has hands, I curse him. When I see a driver who speedily overtakes I declare a lesson on him. When the preacher preaches, I follow not his tempo; I try to imagine the amount of stupidity in the words. I never saw the moon yesterday. The last time I saw it, the gibbous sick parasite was waning downwards. This able man was not different from those whom I will find today idling at bus stops.

I think that if you are healthy, you need a little bit harder manual tasks to handle. If NYS was such a serious entity, it would not take a week before they moved from Kibera to Mathare to Langas. I can agree that there are people who have feminine hearts with masculine bodies and vice versa. Some get obsessed with their energies. When I see heavy bouncers at the doors of a supermarket I just wonder. Is that how big bodies should be used? But it would be sorrowful- I sometimes feel so- to have a thin man for a security person.

The only way to survive the bully mates during early years in school is to befriend at least one. Give him some snacks and promise him a few favours and you will be protected. God gave them muscles and denied them brains. It happens otherwise when I see a heavy loaded timid soul. You are big, muscular and can’t even give an idea in a discussion. Yours is just to keep  eyes and ears on people’s mouth.

In a café at Githurai a boy came to take my order. He could not understand what I wanted- he was new at the place. The mirror helped me to steal look at him with a chill as I waited. I stopped a paragraph in Harry Potter  just to see how tense he got. Though tired in the early morning, he forced self to stand at every turn of a customer, more than a slave does, just because it will be tough on him when the boss senses laxity. My father is sick. I phoned him yesterday at his workplace and the colonial Indian could not allow him take a hospital leave because he had been away for long. If you get harassed due to your weakness, how can you be helped? Sorry Dad.

Hope- a good and likewise a bad thing keep people on their toes, knowing that tomorrow will see them in better places and ashame their oppressors. It least happens when the dreams don’t come in once lifetime having suffered all that long.

Kenya has a problem as a country. We have so many of Unokas around than Okonkwos. If we decided to be doing a particular job at a period of time, it won’t be taking a day at the work place. If farmers discussed about better methods of human capital production, if the government knew the potential youths have, if we discovered ourselves as a group and not as opposing individuals, we can do better. Some of us have too much to do- for money- while others have nothing to think about. It may go that it is a person to cultivate industry in self; if there are no external inhibitors for a lazy move, why should the person not deviate?

Working smart is a parasitic kind of thinking which the lazy will fall for. What is it anyway? The more spare idle moments at your disposal increases the chance to unhealthy deviative practices. Keep focused all day long and have enough inactive time at the bed. Get a book, have a sport, develop a super habit that well utilizes your energy and most of all, have a diary to account for the day in.

 For a strong and big person to immerse self in education, which is a super achievement, I find it somehow nana. Work alongside man. The painting boy was in his favourite jeans, T-shirt and cape- not a working uniform.

Were it not for Reggae roots to cool my warming toes, I could not have wiped the dusty chair for the new hair shape. Fifty shillings is too much for an idling man.

Too much refreshing and talking delays a task. Picture source: The waterproject.org